"Pick a Colour" by Souvankham Thammavongsa is a brief yet captivating story that delves into the dynamics of gender, race, and class/labour as experienced by the main character, her employees, and the customers they engage with.

Ning, our female main character, is a former boxer who has left the boxing world and now runs her own nail salon. While the story lacks a traditional plot, it chronicles Ning's day from the opening of the salon through to its closing.

She operates the salon with a neat and organized routine, where she and her employees all refer to themselves as Susan, wear identical clothing, have the same haircut, and offer only basic salon services at cheap prices while insulting their indifferent white customers in their native language.

Ning operates a highly micromanaged ship where they lean into the invisible role immigrant workers have in industries like salons.

However, as the story progresses, we see Ning struggle with the need to be seen by her customers and colleagues, and despite appearing cold and uncaring, she genuinely cares about her workers. She worries about them to the extent that she cannot bring herself to fire one of them for not showing up after receiving their pay in advance.

Overall, it is a very interesting read with a compelling premise.

[This review is based on NetGalley ARC provided in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion]

A trip to the salon like no other. Ning has a past as a boxer but now she runs her nail salon Susan's, it's small but uniformly smart, with a place for everything and everything in it's pace, exactly how she likes it.

Unfolding over a day Ning contemplates her past and her present whilst dealing with customers. We are given brief glimpses of her boxing life which helps her navigate fussy customers along with no show staff.

A riveting tale, richly told, the nail colours lept off the walls and I could feel the warmth of the sudsy basin of water on my feet.

I was devasted to finish it so soon but the prose was liquid gold

Will be on the lookout for more from this author.

Pick a Colour is a quietly powerful and sharply observed character study that explores identity, labour and the complexities of womanhood with understated brilliance. Told over a single day, Souvankham Thammavongsa invites readers into the inner world of Ning, a retired boxer turned nail salon worker, who is known to her clients only as Susan.

This is not a book driven by action, but by atmosphere, language and emotional truth. Through Ning's internal monologue, we gain a piercing insight into her hidden intellect and the daily contradictions she faces in her job. The salon is full of chatter, polish and routine, but beneath the surface, tensions simmer. The Susans, as the women are collectively nicknamed, operate in a space where class, race and gender collide, often in subtle, cutting ways.

What makes this book so effective is the way it captures the rhythms of working life and the invisible dynamics between women who are both bonded and divided by their shared space. There is a quiet tension that builds with each interaction, each memory and reflection Ning shares. Her voice is introspective, wry and full of unspoken longing. She is a woman shaped by what has been lost, but also defined by a quiet strength that refuses to be diminished.

The writing is precise, intimate and often poetic. It has the feeling of watching a single moment unfold in real time, yet every word carries weight. While the plot is minimal, the emotional depth is immense. This is a book that lingers, not because of what happens, but because of how deeply it makes you feel the shape of someone else's life.

Pick a Colour is a masterclass in stillness and subtlety. A short book, but one that speaks volumes about the human condition. Thoughtful, moving and exquisitely written.

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I read Thammavongsas' previous short story collection and absolutely loved it, so I was very excited about her new novel and requested it straight away.

Unfortunately I don't think the story had as much power as her previous work. I never became attached to the characters and I don't think it had the emotional impact that the author was aiming for.

It was a solid take on immigration and playing into stereotypes to your benefit but I think it could have gone deeper.

Before I launch into my review, I would like to say a huge thank you to Souvankham Thammavongsa, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, and Netgalley for the Advanced Digital Reader Copy of this title. For anyone with their eye on this title, here is my personal review of the book to help you decide whether you are interested or not. All opinions offered are my own.

I kid you not, I was sucked into this story from the start. The story begins with the narrator making some bold, audacious claims about how ugly people are, then goes on to explain why, whilst weaving in features of their own character. We learn that this is the salon worker, Ning, referred to in the blurb, who remains nameless until 50% of the way through the book.

Pick a Colour is a story that takes place over a single day, a single shift, in fact. In this witty novella, Ning, a retired boxer struggles with her competing identities. Externally, she is just another salon worker buffing nails, and waxing brows, albeit she owns her store. Internally, Ning dreams of more. On the one hand, she longs to be recognized in her own right by the privileged customers she serves and those who she has forgotten or been forgotten by since she moved on. On the other hand, Ning values routine and living in her own bubble. What this equates to is a book about desires and regrets.

The author selects an interesting style with which to tell this story. I was unable to put the book down, reading it in a single session, because it is written in such a way where the narrator is speaking directly to the reader. I joined Ning as she dealt with regulars and walk-ins. I was made privy to the conversations she unwittingly had with clients she cared almost nothing for. I also enjoyed being party to the inner circle of the four current Susans as they were designed by Ning to blend in, as per societal expectations.

Through one person’s eyes, the reader experiences the subtleties of racism/racial biases and being overlooked when one has outlived their purpose as perceived by the salon workers. Ideas surrounding marriage, mistresses, and miscarriages feature heavily in the commentary clients relay to the Susans by way of achieving therapeutic release. It turned the whole experience of attending a nail salon on its head that begs for a change in client behavior when they turn up for beauty treatments. The story is as much about them as it is against Ning who compares her current life to her former life, noting that there is always a fight or a struggle.

Full of wit and truths, this book is a 5 out of 5 for people that are looking for a realistic view of life.

This book is a short but interesting insight into the mind of an immigrant nail technician . The writing is compelling and flows easily despite the fact that nothing really happens.

The first part of the book had a lot of potential, it kept me wanting to read on to find out more about Ning’s past life as a boxer, the lives of the other Susans and the conflict with the other nail salon. However, I soon became a little bored when it became clear that the story wasn’t going to go anywhere and so much was going to be left unsaid.

I can appreciate that the point of the story was to give an accurate portrayal of loneliness and class but I was left a little disappointed. I think I would have enjoyed it more if the book was either a little shorter or much longer.

Ning is a curious character.
At work, she is a Susan, as the other manicurists.
She has amazing observational skills, and reading her observations was soothing, interesting, fun and anxiety causing all at once or one at a time depending on the situation she was describing.
Thanks to its minimalistic approach, although I generally tend to read more plot and conflict packed stories, this was amazing.

I really enjoyed how this book was contained in one setting (the nail shop) with limited little calls to memories and experience outside of the shop. The interior world of the main character is interesting and complex, yet I love how simplistic and clear the prose is.
I felt immersed in the world of the nail shop, their interactions in another language, the sameness that is expected of The Susan’s and how these prototype visuals feed into the expectations that people might have of immigrants working in the service industry..
This book was highly observed and very compelling.. I wanted to read more depth other characters and especially the relationship with the other salon, I felt that could’ve been developed more. It. Says a lot that I was sad to get to the end of this book, I would’ve loved a few more chapters.

I snapped up Pick a Colour as soon as I spotted it on NetGalley having enjoyed Souvankham Thammavongsa’s Giller-Prize-winning short story collection, How to Pronounce Knife. Her new one is set over one day in a nail salon run by Ning who, in another life, was a boxer. Everyone’s called Susan at Ning’s salon: it saves on nametags and avoids confusing the customers to whom they all look the same, anyway. Regulars and walk-ins are skilfully persuaded into extras, share their unhappiness and problems, offer unsolicited advice, unaware of the scathing, often funny back and forth between Ning’s team conducted in their own language offering their views on these entitled clients who notice next to nothing about the women who are performing intimate services for them, and care less.
Thammavongsa’s brief novella is narrated in Ning’s voice, in short, sparse prose, offering glimpses of her story as she takes us through the day. She’s a smart businesswoman, as dedicated to the success of her salon as she once was to boxing, intensely private and self-contained. Once or twice, we see the woman beneath the controlled exterior she presents to the world but she continues to withhold herself from her clients despite the intimacies and secrets which pour out of them. It’s an impressive piece of work. I’m not one for nail salons but it might make me think on my next visit if I were.

A short but interesting and well written story, with commentary on class, labour and gender. While nothing actually happened, I really enjoyed the focus on the women (the Susans), their work life and relationships with each other. This was like being a fly on the wall with dedicated insight into Ning’s life. A great character study of a book.